Crossfire
by paper-princess-94
Summary: Sequel to Forbidden. Karin and Toushiro are finally together after the events several years ago, but will everything remain peaceful or will they find themselves and their daughter dragged into something they'd rather leave alone?
1. Chapter 1

**A/N **Well, here it is, chapter one of the sequel to forbidden. This took a little while longer than planned (note the sarcasm) due to epic-scale writer's block and and my amazing procrastination talents.

So I hope you enjoy it, for updates keep an eye out for journal entries on deviantart or follow me on twitter :D the link's on my page :)

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><p><strong>Chapter one<strong>

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><p>Toushiro jumped away from the two wide sword-swings aimed at him, grinning as he watched the girl he fought struggle to keep the wooden blade under control.<p>

"Keep the blade up, Ku, or you're never going to hit me." He snorted as he received a glare from the white-haired girl. "You know, you look just like your mother when you do that."

"She looks just like who when she does what?" Karin asked as she wandered into their garden, setting two full glasses down on the low table set to the side of the training area.

"Ku. She's doing that nose-scrunching thing that you always do when I don't do what you say." Toushiro laughed as he received the exact look he had just been talking about from his wife. "Yeah, that's the one."

Karin just stuck her tongue out at him before he felt something hit him over the back of the head. Instincts took over as he whipped around, naturally falling into a defensive position facing his daughter who was currently doubled over laughing into her knees. He glanced behind him to find Karin watching him with a grin on her face.

"You're not the only one who can teach her battle tactics, we were having a little lesson just yesterday about how to use distractions in your environment to help you in battle." Karin shifted so that she was looking around Toushiro straight at Kukiko, "Good work, Ku; you're learning quick." She smiled and Kukiko smiled back.

"Thanks Mum."

"No problem, now come over here and get something to drink- you've been practising for almost an hour now, you must be thirsty." Kukiko nodded enthusiastically and Karin laughed as she watched the twelve year old bound towards her happily, Toushiro trailing behind her with the beginnings of a frown sneaking on to his face. "Don't pout, you'll get wrinkles."

"I wasn't pouting." Karin laughed again at the look he gave her but said nothing; it certainly looked like a pout to _her_. "Why did you teach her that stuff? I thought I was meant to be teaching her."

"Well, she gets bored when you're at work and can't train her. She asked if I knew anything about fighting and I said yes." When he frowned at her she shook her finger at him, "I wasn't going to lie to her, Toushiro, she'd have found out eventually anyway. Anyway, she asked if I would teach her a little bit and maybe practise with her occasionally and I didn't really feel like saying no."

"But I thought you said you didn't want to fight anymore- since you don't have Kurohime with you? You said it wasn't the same…" Toushiro watched Karin carefully; he didn't really want her to start fighting again- it was what had led to her ending up here in the first place- but he knew that if she had really set her heart on it then he wouldn't be able to do anything to stop her.

"Yeah, I know, but I've just felt so restless recently. Ku's growing up and it'll only be a matter of time before she's off to the academy and I'll be here alone for most of the day… It's just been nagging at me to start practicing again, I don't know why…" She looked up at him with worry in her eyes. "Sometimes, it's like I don't even have a choice in it; it's like someone else is telling me what to do."

Toushiro drew her in to a loose hug, pressing a kiss to the crown of her head, "Hey, stop worrying so much. I'm not really bothered if you want to start training again, maybe we could train together?" He shot her a smug look before turning to grab the drink which had been left for him on the table, "That is, unless you're worried that I'll beat you. After all, I _am_ a captain, and you're a housewife…"

"Like you could beat me!" Karin snorted at him, her eyes fiery with the possibility of a challenge. "Even if I am out of practise, I still won't lose." Memories of their marathon training sessions from before her death made Karin smile; both of them were too stubborn to let the other win, and although she was sure that Toushiro was a lot more powerful than she was she still made sure that he had to give his all to stop her from winning. There had been one time when they had both worked so hard that they ended up passing out in Urahara's basement and not waking up until the following morning.

She'd been more than content to just lie in his arms, even if their bed was only the sand covered floor.

She kind of missed those days, when they could be that reckless and no one would even bat an eyelid at it. Now that they had Ku Karin found that they couldn't spar into the early hours of the morning or go hollow-hunting just for the fun of it.

Don't get her wrong- Karin loved her daughter and her life now. The twelve year old was her pride and joy- one of the best things which ever happened to her, but sometimes she got that nostalgic feeling and wanted to relive her golden moments.

Toushiro was watching her with a smirk on his face as Ku shouted something about going to visit Granny. Almost instantly after hearing the door close Karin felt herself pulled forwards, two strong arms encircling her as gentle lips pressed to hers. She could feel herself melting into the kiss, a warm smile heating her face once they pulled apart.

"So you think you can beat me?" Toushiro asked- a spark of mischief in his eyes that Karin knew very few people would even notice. "How about a match now then? I'll even make it fair and use a practise sword, since you don't have yours."

Karin grinned at him. "Bring it on!" She turned away, grabbing one of the wooden swords which had been set to the side. As she turned she noticed that Toushiro had done the same and had now fallen into a comfortable defensive position.

She took the hint, forcing her power into her legs as she dashed forwards in the hopes of putting as much strength as possible behind her first hit. She wasn't at all surprised when Toushiro blocked it, but a smug smile crept onto her face at the way he had to focus so intently on not letting her through his block.

Toushiro pushed back, two quick slashes to her sides followed and Karin found herself falling back slightly in order to dodge them when she couldn't raise her sword fast enough. Each separate hit after that blurred together for Karin into one huge whirl of action and activity; her mind was still as sharp as it had been back in Karakura town but her body felt heavy from the lack of training. She was on the defensive more often than the offensive and she rapidly found herself becoming out of breath.

Karin's back hit the outer wall of the garden. She cursed lightly and prepared for the coming attack, but it never came. Instead she found her lips being captured once again and a gentle hand cupping her cheek as she glanced up.

Toushiro smiled smugly down at her. "So, who won then?"

Karin snorted at him, "That was a practise fight; I haven't trained for almost twelve years- of course you won." Toushiro just laughed as she pouted at him.

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><p>Ku strolled down the street kicking stones up in front of her with each step. It would take her at least another ten minutes to reach Granny's house so she allowed her mind to wander as she walked. Her thoughts inevitably travelled to her mother and the recent revelation that she had been a fighter before she'd had Ku.<p>

Ku wasn't sure what to make of this, in some ways it made her happy because she had learnt something new about someone she cared about and she knew that her mother would be happier now that she wasn't hiding that part of herself. But on the other hand she felt somewhat guilty; surely if her mother hadn't had her then she would have probably continued fighting, may have even become a shinigami.

In her distracted state of mind, Ku didn't notice the nervous looking boy walking towards her down the road with his eyes locked tightly on his own feet. In fact, the first time she realized he was even there was when he crashed into her and they both found themselves seated on the dusty ground.

Ku glanced up, ready to shut at whoever had decided to run in to her, but when she saw the little boy her thoughts flew out the window. He was tiny; she couldn't tell how old he was because of his obvious poor health. Ku found it difficult to work out whether he was really young or if it was just that he'd never had the energy needed to grow. She'd never really understood how growth worked in soul society, but her dad had told her that the reason he was smaller than most men his age was partly because he hadn't had a source of energy growing up.

But she had thought that only souls with high levels of reiryoku needed physical nourishment; perhaps this boy had the potential to become a shinigami one day. Everyone in her family had high reiryoku levels so they had food at her house, but she didn't know whether it would be okay to bring the boy home. Her dad had always said to never talk to strangers.

But surely that didn't count when the person needed help as much as this boy did…

She watched him struggle to his feet and felt a twinge in her heart, she couldn't just leave him here; he needed help and there was almost no chance that he would meet someone else with both the means and the will to help him before he reached a truly critical condition.

Her mind made up she reached a hand out to the boy, but he just stared at her with a tinge of fear painting his expression. Dark green eyes watched her closely as she approached him, keeping tabs on her as though he thought she was a predator about to pounce at him.

Ku smiled reassuringly at him, "Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you. I just want to help." He looked to be wavering slightly so she gave one final push. "You're hungry right? I can get you something to eat if you come with me." He looked excited for a moment before curling in on himself slightly as a painful growl escaped from his stomach.

Ku watched him with concern as he stood there in obvious pain. She grinned at him when he took her hand after she offered it again and she was happy to see him return a weak smile. She tugged gently on his hand as she guided him in the direction of her house, her visit to Granny's forgotten as the hand in hers clutched tightly.

She just hoped that when they got there, her parents wouldn't turn him away.

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><p>Toushiro had just left for work when Ku came back in through the door. Karin looked up from where she had been tidying the kitchen. She loved their house, given to them as a present by the Captain-commander after their wedding along with a small house for Toushiro's Granny nearby, but she doubted anyone would like cleaning such a large house alone.<p>

All thoughts of cleaning left her mind as she caught sight of the small boy being supported by Ku's arm. She rushed across the room and asked no questions as she helped the scared looking boy into a seat. She smiled at him before turning to Ku and questioning her in hushed tones, "Who is he? What happened?"

Ku watched her mother with surprise; she hadn't expected her to be so welcoming to the kid. When she started asking her questions Ku found herself fumbling for answers. "Um, I don't know who he is, I just found him. But he's hungry, that means he has reiryoku, right mum?"

"Yes, Ku." She looked at the boy for a moment before turning back to her daughter, "Could you go and make some tea and maybe a sandwich? Nothing too big." Ku nodded and scampered away, happy to be able to do something constructive in helping the boy. When she returned a few minutes later he looked a lot calmer, silently answering her mother's questions with nods and shakes of the head.

"Do you remember what happened to you?" Karin was knelt before the boy, one of his little hands held between her two. The boy shook his head in answer to her question. "Well, how far back do you remember?" Five fingers were held up, "Five days?" The boy nodded and Karin nodded in return, her expression thoughtful as she ran through the information she had received.

The boy didn't remember anything more than five days ago, so she guessed that that must have been when he passed over to soul society, but for him to have gotten into this sort of condition in such a short period of time seemed almost impossible. Unless he had already been in a bad way on Earth… Her mind whirred with the possibilities as she watched the boy wolf down the food Ku had brought.

Could this boy really have so much reiryoku that his energy levels dropped so much in such a short amount of time? She had seen it happen before but she barely felt anything from the boy before her; there was definitely something there but she didn't think it was enough to do this damage.

She shook her head as she watched the boy before her starting to drift off in the big chair she had placed him in. Without a second thought she scooped him up and made her way towards one of the spare rooms with Ku trailing behind her. When asked later she would say that it was because of some latent maternal instinct left over from when Ku had been small, but if she was being honest with herself she would admit that something about the boy's situation fascinated her. Nothing interesting ever really happened around her anymore, and she secretly wished that the boy was part of some elaborate plan which would bring more excitement to her otherwise normal life.

As she placed the boy in the too-large bed she smoothed down his hair and tucked him in. He was already asleep by the time she had left the room. She guessed from the look of him that he was about six years old, give or take a year or so, and smiled as she remembered when Ku had been that age. Before she'd started answering back or training with her father. Back when she was totally Karin's little girl.

Ku was right behind her as she returned to the living room and Karin found herself turning around to give her daughter a smile, "You did the right thing Ku. I don't know what's going on with that boy but he was definitely exhausted to a dangerous point. You may have saved his live; I'm proud of you."

Ku felt something in the pit of her stomach turn, had he really been that bad? When her mum leant down to offer her a hug she wrapped her arms gently around her neck and squeezed. She smiled as she pulled away but it quickly fled from her face. "What are you going to do now? What'll Dad say?"

Karin grimaced slightly before dropping down into one of the large chairs dotted around the room, "I suppose we'll just have to see what happens. But don't worry, I'll talk to your dad; everything will be fine."

Ku only hoped she was right.

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><p><strong>AN **Tell me what you think, and again, sorry it took so long

Ooh, and if you know any good boy's names please tell me, I'm stumped right now... 3


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N** Sorry this took so long, guys. Between writer's block, my laptop having a funny five minutes and many other things it's taken a lot longer than I was hoping... But here's chapter 2 hope you enjoy :) Also, there's a big author's note at the end explaining a few things about the story and such. It's not necessary to read all of it if you don't want to but the first paragraph is fairly important to the story further on, so at least try to read that much ;)

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><p>Ku found herself unable to relax as she listened to her mother cleaning in the kitchen. It was as though she was a spring someone had coiled too tightly but refused to let go, pent up energy caused her hands to shake whilst she waited for some sign of life from the boy in the other room. Every now and then she would find herself moving to stand but she forced herself to remain seated; her mum had said it was just a case of time and rest, and having her around wasn't going to help him.<p>

Eventually she managed to get herself under control and settled down with a book which had been recommended to her by someone from her dad's division. Just as she was starting to get into the story she heard a mumble from behind the door on the other side of the room and before she knew it she had leapt to her feet approaching the door. This time she didn't stop herself, after all, for all she knew he might be hurt.

When she reached the door she slowly twisted the handle, slipping inside as quickly as she could in order to stop too much light slipping in- she didn't want to risk waking him if he was still asleep. Once her eyes had adjusted to the dark room she turned around, only to jump when she saw the boy sat straight up in bed, his eyes wide open but completely vacant.

A chill swept through Ku's body as she watched the child, his lips moved frantically as he tried to form words in what Ku assumed was a dream of some sort.

"More like a nightmare…" she murmured to herself as she moved closer, attempting to understand what he was trying to say. When she realised what was being said she wished she hadn't tried. Pleas for help and desperate whispers of escape fell silently from the boy's lips. Ku wished she had had the common sense to get her mum before entering the room because now she felt rooted to the spot, dragged gradually further and further into the boy's terror.

A single tear falling from one dark green eye snapped her out of it and she shook her head violently, attempting to clear it of second-hand fear. Rubbing her eyes she found that her face was damp with tears shed for the boy before her who still sat whispering to the phantoms which haunted him.

Ku slumped into the chair at his bedside before reaching a cautious hand out to touch his own; for a moment his body tensed, but it quickly relaxed as she began drawing gentle circles into his skin with her fingertip. She managed to catch him as his body fell backwards and carefully placed him on his back, drawing the quilt up to his chin to ensure he wouldn't get cold.

Once she was sure he was once again fast asleep she settled herself down on the chair and waited for him to wake up. She didn't try to leave the room, but even if she had tried she thought she would have probably failed; something about this boy caught her attention and she just couldn't bear to leave him alone after what had just happened.

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><p>When Karin went searching for Ku about an hour later she found her daughter slumped over the bed of her sleeping new friend, one hand holding a smaller one clasped within it, and she couldn't help but smile. Her daughter was growing into an amazing young woman and she couldn't be more proud.<p>

A short trip to the closet yielded the blanket she had stored away for the winter. She draped it over Ku's shoulders, careful not to wake her. Once she was done she backed out of the room and closed the door silently behind her, returning to her seat on the sofa where her book awaited her. She knew it would only be a matter of time before Toushiro returned and when he did she wanted to be the one to talk first.

And if that meant staying up until he got home at whatever ridiculous time he finally managed to finish his work, then she was willing to face exhaustion the following day. She knew that if Toushiro saw the boy before she could explain then he wouldn't listen to reason. At least, not in time to help the poor kid- he needed help now. She had no delusions that he would survive another night on his own; he was exhausted and malnourished and chilled to the bone and something in her screamed that she needed to do everything in her power to protect him.

Her plans to stay awake began slipping away once 2am came and went. She rarely stayed up later than midnight as a response to caring for Ku (a natural early bird, her daughter had never slept in later than 7am in her life) and found that her body rebelled against her mind as she was dragged into a fitful sleep.

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><p>Toushiro yawned silently as he landed in front of the pretty house they had been gifted several years ago, although in the dark it was difficult to make out any of the features which made the building home to him and his small family. Pushing open the door he spied Karen asleep in one of their plush armchairs and smirked; trust her to fall asleep in such an uncomfortable-looking position. She had one leg hooked over one of the arms of the chair and her head resting on the other, one of her hands was hanging off of the front of the seat and swaying slightly, no more than an inch above the floor with a book resting on the ground just below it.<p>

He chuckled as he made his way towards her and stopped just in front of the chair before crouching down. He reached out a hand and gently shook her shoulder. "Karin? You should probably go to bed." He smiled as she opened her eyes just enough to squint at him and let out a tired groan.

"Urgh, why does my back hurt?" She sat up slowly, massaging the muscles in her lower back in the hopes that it would help alleviate some of the aches which had developed there.

"Because you fell asleep in the chair instead of going to bed." He leant down to pick up the book which still lay on the floor. "I'm guessing you were reading." He smirked at her, "or were you waiting for me?"

Karin laughed at him before remembering exactly why she **had** been sleeping in the chair. "Actually, I do need to speak to you, it's kind of important." Toushiro knew to listen carefully when her voice fell to that sombre pitch so he found himself settling down to allow his wife to speak freely.

"What happened? Is something wrong?" He asked, slightly concerned by the worried crease between Karin's brows.

"Not exactly wrong… Just, I need to speak to you about something, and I need you to listen to me before jumping to any conclusions." She looked down at him, one eyebrow raised enquiringly. Toushiro found himself nodding in answer to her silent question, curiosity overtaking as he waited for her to begin.

Karin took a deep breath and launched into her story, placing particular emphasis on the boy's physical weakness and his lack of memories. Even with her extra effort she could still see a small frown developing on her husband's face as the story progressed, she could only hope that it was because he was worried about the boy and not because he thought there was a potential threat.

"He passed out so I put him in the spare room; Ku was keeping an eye on him until she fell asleep too. He's not a danger is he? I mean, he's just a little boy and he can't even remember where he was a week ago…" She glanced at Toushiro nervously, hoping to receive one of his small smiles of reassurance.

"There are lots of reasons why he could have memory problems, he could have hit his head or eaten something which scrambled his brain for a little while. Or it could just be from lack of food; I never got to that point when I was a kid, but food was never easy to come by and when I was at my worst there would be moments where I would forget where or who I was…" He looked thoughtful for a moment. "I need to see him."

"So he can stay, at least for a little while?" Karin asked hopefully. She wanted to unravel the mysteries surrounding the boy's origins.

"For now, but if I think he's i_any_/i danger to you or Ku then he has to go." Karin wasn't happy that she may have to just leave the boy on his own in the future, but for now she would just have to accept it. "You said he was in the guest room?" Toushiro asked, approaching the door as quietly as he could.

"Mmhm, he's asleep though. Try not to wake him or Ku up; they've both had tiring days…" Toushiro just waved a placating hand at her before opening the door and slipping into the dark room.

He blinked slowly, allowing his eyes a moment to adjust to the near-pitch-black darkness of the room before he approached the bed. A smile snuck its way onto his lips as he saw Ku sleeping peacefully in the chair beside the bed, her blanket pooling around the base of the chair after she'd shifted about in her sleep. He moved to her side and tucked the blanket back up around her chin, smiling softly to himself when she snuggled down into the soft wool.

The smile slipped as he turned back to the bed, taking in the sight of the small boy who currently occupied it. Physically he couldn't be more than six, but he knew as well as anyone else in Soul Society that high levels of reiatsu could stunt growth; by his estimate the boy could be anywhere between six and ten. But what turned the non-smile on his face into a frown was the strange reiatsu signals which he was getting from the boy. They seemed almost non-existent, certainly not strong enough to starve the boy to this point in such a short amount of time.

A few minutes later he returned to the other room, pulling Karin away from her position of constant vigilance beside it as he went. He could tell that she wanted to tell him off for it (maybe even do a little indignant shouting like she would have when they were younger) but she let it go with little more than an annoyed snort in his direction so that she didn't wake the kids in the next room.

"So?" She asked in a rushed whisper, desperate to know what her husband thought of the boy. Although a big part of her would be happy with him just accepting the boy staying for a while, a small thought at the back of her mind shouted in the hope that he could shed some light on the situation which she had been thinking about so much since she first found out about the lad.

"He has a low level of reiatsu, probably enough to drain him completely if he didn't eat for a month or so; but at that level I don't think it could have put him in this condition… And I have no idea what happened to make him lose his memories like that…" He glanced at Karin as she watched him fiercely. "That said, I don't feel any sort of threat from him; in fact I would recommend that he stays in bed for another five days at least."

"So he can stay?" Karin asked warily; she loved Toushiro, she really did, but sometimes he could be as cryptic as the kung fu masters in those old movies she used to watch with Ichigo when they were kids. Her face split into a grin when she saw her husband nod slightly, wrapping her arms around his neck and placing a kiss on his cheek. "Thank you, Toushiro. I don't know whether I could send him back out there, he just looked so small and scared when he got here…"

"I know, don't worry. As long he doesn't pose a threat I won't make him leave, at least not until he's feeling better." He brought one arm around to support Karin at the waist as the other hand traced the slight bags under her eyes, "now, I think it's time we got you to bed. After all, now you get to look after two kids instead of one, won't that be fun?" He chuckled slightly when Karin gave him a light slap to the shoulder in response. "Come on, bedtime for you."

He scooped her up suddenly, holding her bridal style in his arms as she squirmed in an attempt to get free. "I'm not a child, you know. I can walk by myself."

"I'm not doubting that you can, but-" he leant down and pressed his lips to hers, watching her eyes close as all the tension he could feel in her body melted away. When he pulled away he smiled slyly at her before finishing his sentence, "it makes doing that a lot easier."

Karin smiled up at Toushiro and for a moment it almost felt like they were back at the clinic all those years ago, still getting used to the idea of being a couple, a **real** couple. She ran a hand through soft white hair and sighed, resting her head against his shoulder.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Toushiro was looking at her with a concerned look on his face.

She chuckled dryly before answering, "I don't know, I just… I suppose it feels like things are moving too fast. I mean, I still remember finding out that we were going to have Ku, and now look at her…"

"I know what you mean, but she had to start growing up some day. I suppose today's that day." He smiled at her reassuringly before giving her a comforting squeeze. "Come on, it's bedtime for Karin." Toushiro manoeuvred his way into their room as quietly as he could without jostling Karin too much before setting her on the bed as he went to get changed out of his uniform.

When he returned he found her wrapped in the duvet meant for both of them and he couldn't help but laugh lightly. Making his way to the bed he slid onto it beside Karin and gently unravelled part of the covers from his apparently incredibly-cold wife before pulling her into his arms and pulling the duvet over the both of them. She smirked up at him, already half-asleep. "Night, 'Shiro, love you."

He dropped a kiss to her temple before snuggling closer to her in the darkness, "love you too."

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><p><strong>AN **I feel like I should leave a little (or not so little…) note here to give you guys a bit more of a grip on the Bleach world as I see it in this story. The most important thing I wanted to talk about was that the Forbidden world isn't quite the same as the regular Bleach universe in that there are slight differences in who is and isn't alive as well as certain differences in the events which have happened. Orihime never went to Hueco Mundo and therefore the whole kerfuffle that happened after that never occurred. Because of this, as far as we know all of Aizen's arrancar are still alive and kicking and could possibly be popping up at some point in this fic ;)

Secondly I've always wondered how exactly aging in Bleach works, so when I started Forbidden (all that time ago) with the intention of it running over a long time period (I think we're currently about 20-25 years into it, I'm too lazy to go back and work it out…) I started up my Bleach-aging-theory. Essentially, aging in soul society does not mirror aging on Earth.

- A regular (adult) soul will age only 1 year for every 5 which pass on earth, the soul of a child (because it is constantly growing) ages at a normal speed until it reaches the age of about 14 or so when it begins to act like an adult soul.

-The shinigami were more difficult to nail down (what with characters like Ukitake being supposedly several centuries old and having aged about 20 years, at a push) so I've decided that at least in this story a shinigami ages at a rate of about 1 year per every 10 passing on Earth. But, because this still didn't quite add up I had to keep expanding the idea. A shinigami has slight control over their aging; this can be controlled by conscious thought or subconsciously. For example, during Toushiro's separation from Karin he consciously kept his body aging at a normal rate for Earth so that when they met again he wouldn't still be a little kid. But when he was younger his body subconsciously slowed down his aging (and his growth) because of his high level of reiatsu placing pressure on his body.

Okay, done, if you read all of that then I'm impressed and would seriously like to know what you think about my theories, they've been stewing in my brain for so long now that I just accept them as facts but I want to know whether they make sense to you guys too. Thanks for reading, hugs for all :)


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